50 FIRST EFFECTS OF WAR

requirements of the country, or stop to think how
stocks of foreign production, when exhausted, could
be replenished. The Tariff Commissions, which were
established in various centresl to fix4 each week the
prices of food commodities, did more harm than good.
Being entirely uncontrolled or co-ordinated, the official
tariffs exhibited surprising differences in prices. If
the majority of the members came from the consum-
ing classes, rates ruled low: if from the producing,
the converse was the case. In practice the result in
either case was the same: the retailer, tied by his
relations with the local producer or by his inability
to replenish imported stocks except at famine prices,
traded without regard to tariffs, and the consumer
paid rather than go without his needs. It took some
weeks before the Council of Ministers grasped the
fact that no regulation of prices, or conservation of
stocks, would solve the main problem how to increase
the supply of food-stuffs in the country. A central
Commission, therefore, was established to consider
this point, with due consideration for agricultural and
commercial interests. Their first action was to rescind
some of the more impetuous decisions of the Council.
The embargo upon exports of every article of prime
necessity, for example, was lifted. But the Com-
mission was handicapped by the narrow circle from
which its members were drawn. Neither traders
nor agriculturists were represented upon it, although
the food-supply of a nation is a sufficiently technical
subject to require expert advice. But throughout the
War, and long after, the Egyptian Government clung
to the erroneous belief that their own officials alone
were competent to handle this problem.

The food outlook, indeed, was far from promising.
For many years Egypt's production of wheat had
fallen below the tonnage which was required for her

1 Decree dated 20th August 1914.